Glenis studied for a B. A. (Hons) in English literature after taking early retirement. She was awarded her degree at the age of 67.

The frozen Serpentine in London's Hyde Park, 2010 | Source

...a respectable female, far advanced in pregnancy, was taken out of the Serpentine River and brought to her residence in Queen Street, Brompton, having been missing for nearly six weeks. She had a valuable ring on her finger...

— London Times, December 12, 1816

The cold earth slept below;

Above the cold sky shone;

And all around,

With a chilling sound,

From caves of ice and fields of snow

The breath of night like death did flow

Beneath the sinking moon.

The wintry hedge was black;

The green grass was not seen;

The birds did rest

On the bare thorn’s breast,

Whose roots, beside the pathway track,

Had bound their folds o’er many a crack

Which the frost had made between.

Thine eyes glow’d in the glare

Of the moon’s dying light;

As a fen-fire’s beam

On a sluggish stream

Gleams dimly—so the moon shone there,

And it yellow’d the strings of thy tangled hair,

That shook in the wind of night.

The moon made thy lips pale, beloved;

The wind made thy bosom chill;

The night did shed

On thy dear head

Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie

Where the bitter breath of the naked sky

Might visit thee at will

A Summary of The Cold Earth Slept Below

The tone of this poem might be described as in the style of gothic horror, in which death and fear are predominant themes. The pace and stressed words in the poem add to the uncanny impression that the poem elicits in the reader.

In an age when the concept of the sublime was an important aspect of the imaginative work of many writers, Shelley, one the foremost Romantic poets, developed a reputation as a poet of extreme landscapes.

Definition - the sublime elicits from the observer of landscapes, or sometimes, situations, a state of awareness that incorporates fear, admiration, and awe.

These features of the sublime are prominent in The Cold Earth Slept Below

The first stanza describes extreme cold (note the repetition of the word cold in the first two lines) in terms of caves of ice, fields of snow,chilling sound and death. In this desolate landscape, even the moon is sinking

The second stanza expands the description of a bleak landscape - the hedge is black, a colour connected with mourning - it is night-time and because it is winter the hedge is stripped of its foliage exposing the bare branches, which are devoid of life - the birds did not rest. Not only are the branches of the hedge bare, the roots are too.The frost had caused numerous cracks in the pathway and the roots of the thorn hedge had crept over and into them - further imagery of life sinking into the ground.

The third stanza moves on from the description of the landscape in the previous two stanzas to a direct address by the voice in the poem to a creature - it is not revealed at this point if the creature is human or an animal. But the creature has eyes that glow in the dying light of the moon. Shelley presents a metaphor of the glowing eyes resembling a fen-fire (will o' the wisp) - an unexplained ghostly light seen by travellers, usually over bogland or fens, at night. Such phenomena were reputed to draw travellers towards certain death in the water.

The fourth stanza continues the direct address to the object of the poem. It is now clear that this is a dead woman - her lips pale, her bosom chill, lying on the ground under a bitterly cold sky. It is evident that this is not an impersonal description - the voice addresses the deceased as beloved.

To summarize, a beloved woman has been out of doors on a bitterly cold winter night and has died of exposure or perhaps, as the allusion to a fen-fire suggests, has drowned as a consequence of being drawn to an inexplicable, possibly paranormal, phenomenon.

1882 oil painting by Arnold Bröcklin , depicting a will o' the wisp, otherwise known as a fen-fire or a jack o' lantern

The Form and Poetic Features of 'The Cold Earth Slept Below'

Four six-line stanzas known as sextains

The rhyme scheme is not consistent throughout the poem but there is a discernable pattern, providing cohesion.

Lines 3 and 4 in each stanza are the shortest lines in the poem and in each of the verses the two lines rhyme - around, sound, rest, breast, beam, stream, shed, head.

The rhyme of stanzas 1 and 2, reading each stanza as a unit independent of the other in terms of rhyme, is - ABCCDDE and ABCCDDB

The rhyme scheme of stanzas 2 and 3 is ABCCBBA and ABCCBBA

Note the alliteration that abounds throughout the poem ( alliteration is a stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series. e.g. line 9 The greengrass was not seen contains both alliteration and internal rhyme)

A significant feature of this poem is the imagery, which is a poetic device used to defamiliarise the familiar. Here it is achieved by the personification of the weather conditions - the earth is sleeping and the wind is breathing. Note the simile used to make a connection between the nature of the wind and death. The wind is as inescapable and as cold a death.

The Context of The Cold Earth Slept Below

There is some controversy about the date that the poem was written. Shelley's first wife, Harriet, had committed suicide by drowning in the Serpentine. Her body was recovered on the 10th December 1816 and there is a view that The Cold Earth Slept Below refers to her death.

Shelley died in a boating accident in Italy in 1822 and The Cold Earth Slept Below was not published until after his death. It first appeared inHunt's Literary Pocket-Book [1823], where it is headed "November 1815". It was reprinted in an edition compiled by Shelley's widow, Mary, in a volume with the title Posthumous Poems [1824]. Theories have been advanced that Mary Shelley changed the date written on the manuscript of the poem to 5th November 1815 so that it would seem to have been written prior to Harriet's death and therefore could not have been about her.

What is clear is that Mary Shelley edited out the publicly unacceptable aspects of the life of her husband in the first comprehensive collection of his work, published in 1839, which remained the authoritative text on Shelley's life until the beginning of the twentieth century ( Allen &Spencer, 2012). So it is not beyond the bounds of belief that the second Mrs Shelley changed the date on which The Cold Earth Slept Below was written.

Mary Shelley by Richard Rothwell

A Brief Timeline of Events in the Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley

4.08.1792

Percy Bysshe Shelley (PBS) born at Field Place, Warnham, West Sussex to Timothy Shelley, M.P., and Elizabeth Pilfold Shelley

30.08.1797

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Mary Shelley) born to William Godwin and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft

Sir Bysshe Shelley dies. During the following 18 months, PBS is involved in negotiations with his father over the the will, eventually receiving money to pay his debts and an annual income of £1000, of which £200 is earmarked for Harriet (later £120 for her children)

Comments

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Jo Miller 3 days agofrom Tennessee

Very interesting, Glenis. Good analysis of the poem but also very interesting information about his life. I think I need to read his biography.

Gypsy Rose Lee 9 days agofrom Riga, Latvia

Great analysis on this poetry. Enjoyed and great information.

Author

GlenR 10 days agofrom UK

Yes,Dora, those were the days - we thought they would never end. I appreciate your visit and your comments.

Dora Weithers 10 days agofrom The Caribbean

Glenis, I appreciate the timeline on one of my favorite poets. I love the Romantics. You do a great job of analyzing the poem. Your explanation of the form takes me back to classroom. Those were the days when we were sharp!